bgeek Monitor Network Traffic

Monitor Network Traffic

The Internet is a vast place with a bit of everything. Whether you’re curious about what your roommate is downloading, your kid is getting into, or any leeches living around you who’ve unscrupulously breached your wifi, knowing how to analyze network traffic is an invaluable skill.
Here is a list of dozens of network analyzers, as well as some general info to get you


http://www.slac.stanford.edu/xorg/nmtf/nmtf-tools.html

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How to Reset RAM

If you rolled your eyes here, that is a good thing. If not, you have many things to learn, young padawan. It’s amazing how few people know


RAM, otherwise known as Random Access Memory, is basically the memory that your computer uses at short term, in order to keep track of all the actions you are currently doing on the computer. If your computer does not have enough free system memory, your programs will begin to run slow, and your computer may actually crash. Usually when you finish with a program, the RAM that was being used is released back into the system; however, there are times that this does not occur. To solve this problem and reset your system RAM, all you need to is defragment your system RAM with a program.

Instructions

Step1

Download RAM Def 2.6 Xtreme from the link in the Resources section below. Save the file to your computer. This software has been tested for spyware and viruses, so you have nothing to worry about. Best of all, the software is completely free! See the resources section for the link.

Step2

Unzip the file, and run the .exe file to install the software to your computer by following the on screen instructions. This installation will take you around five minutes, and will not take up much storage space on your hard drive. Programs like these are perfectly fine for your computer system, and will help you keep up maintenance on it.

Step3

Run the program. The first time you run the program you will be prompted to choose settings. You'll need to click "Yes" on the box that pops up in order to choose the settings. These settings will dictate how the program will behave from now on, in terms of the way it will display information to you, and how often it will run.

Step4

Choose settings that appropriate to your liking. It is suggested to allow the program to run at all times, and when Windows starts, so that you may always keep an eye on your memory resources. You can set the program to alert you when your resources have reached 1/3 of the total system memory available. Once you have chosen these settings, click OK.

Step5

Click Start to begin the defragmenting process. When you are finished, you can click Send to Tray so that the program will continue to run in the background and notify you of your status.

   The Meaning of Technical Acronyms

USB – Universal Serial Bus

GPU – Graphics Processing Unit

CPU – Central Processing Unit

SATA – Serial ATA

HTML – Hyper-text Markup Language

HTTP – Hypertext Transfer Protocol

FTP – File Transfer Protocol

P2P – peer to peer

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Replace the Controller Board on a Hard Drive

 Hard drive failure is more common than you think, but the culprit isn’t always a faulty platter. If your hard disk goes dead and you didn’t hear any screeching death rattles, one thing you could always try is replacing the drive’s controller board. It’s a long shot, but an essential skill nonetheless that occasionally works.
Replacing a hard drive’s controller circuit is as simple as unscrewing the PCB board from the bottom of the drive and detaching the ribbon connector. Make sure you can do this without exposing any of the drive’s internals. You also have to make sure that the new board comes from EXACTLY the same hard drive model as your defective unit – the make, model, and even firmware have to match. Mount the new board in with the same screws and connect the ribbon cable. If  you did everything right and the problem was indeed the controller board, you should be able to retrieve your data.

 

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Build a Hackintosh

Admit it—you’ve cast some sidelong glances at OS X, wondering to yourself if Apple’s shiny OS really lives up to the hype. Well we’re here to tell you that it’s OK to be curious.
Even if your pro-PC leanings have prohibited you from buying a Mac, they don’t have to keep you from trying out OS X. The kind folks over at LifeHacker have posted a how-to about making a Hackintosh—a system custom-built from non-Apple components running OS X. So go ahead; let yourself experiment. Who knows, you might just like it.

Know the 13 Basic HTML Tags

Dreamweaver is for sissies; real geeks prove their skills by going old school and coding web pages by hand in notepad. But even if you can't keep up with the newest iterations of hypertext markup language, you should still be able to at least edit website code to make minor adjustments. So in case you’ve forgotten, here are the 13 most basic HTML tags:
<h1> to <h6> -- Heading styles from large to small
<p> -- Start a new paragraph
<br> or <br /> -- Create a single line break
<! – Your Comment Here -- > -- Make a hidden comment
<hr> -- Mark the page with a horizontal rule line
<b> -- Bold text
<em> -- Emphasize text
<strong> -- Strong emphasis
<i> -- Italicize text
<u> -- Underline text
&nbsp; -- Insert a non-breaking space
<a href=”URL”> -- Anchor a link
<img src= “URL”  alt=”description”> -- Insert an image

Run All Your Essential Apps on a USB Stick



Any real nerd is almost sure to have a USB thumbdrive in his pocket at all times. After all, USB flash storage is pretty much the best way to keep data conveniently at hand. What the average nerd might not know, however, is that it’s possible to install all sorts of apps on a thumb drive, meaning that you can use your USB stick as a mobile platform for your browser, email and instant message client, office suite and more. That means you can access these programs, settings intact, from any computer with a spare USB slot.

It’s all made possible by PortableApps.com, an open source platform for portable software. To get started with PortableApps, go to this page and download whichever version of the portable suite suits your needs. Then run the installer, and choose to install to the root of your USB drive. In the future, if you want to add additional portable applications just download the app, then select “add a new app” from PortableApps’ options menu and browse to the .paf.exe file you downloaded.

Right now, there are portable versions of heavyweights like Firefox, Thunderbird, and OpenOffice, as well as a whole ton of other, awesome programs.